Southwest adding seats

A winglet of a new-generation Boeing 737 being built by the Boeing Co. for Southwest Airlines is shown Tuesday, June 7, 2005 at the company's Renton, Wash. assembly plant. As the Boeing Co. fights to reclaim the commanding lead it once held in selling and delivering jets -- especially over rival Airbus SAS -- it is racking up orders right and left, and the narrow-body 737 continues to be Boeing's hottest seller.

Photo: TED S. WARREN, AP

Southwest Airlines Co. will add six seats to most of its planes as part of cabin refurbishments that will cut fuel use and boost revenue by at least $250 million a year at the biggest discount carrier.

The first change to aircraft interiors since 2001 will mean an investment of about $60 million, Chief Commercial Officer Bob Jordan said in an interview. A switch to lighter materials and seats will cut 635 pounds per plane and save about $10 million a year in fuel, he said.

Extra seats will increase revenue for Southwest, which eschews the fees for the first two checked bags that are now an industry standard. CEO Gary Kelly told employees last month that the Dallas-based airline's cost advantage had fallen by half over rivals such as Delta Air Lines Inc., and urged them to help hold down operating costs.

“With load factors north of 80 percent, meaning that many flights at desirable times are leaving completely full, adding seats is a no-brainer,” said Jeff Straebler, an independent airline analyst based in Stamford, Conn. “The payback on the additional seats should be fairly quick.”

Southwest's load factor, or average number of filled seats on a plane, was 81 percent last year, the airline said on Jan. 9

The carrier didn't originally intend to include seats in the cabin refurbishment, then decided to do so after realizing the changes allowed room for expanding without compromising passenger space, Jordan said.

“We had a chance to add the seats without customers feeling less good than they do today,” he said. “In a world where we have $100 fuel, we would have been crazy to look past at least studying the opportunity for more revenue.”

The modifications will bring total seats to 143 on Southwest's Boeing Co. 737-700s. Boeing 737-800s, which will begin entering Southwest's fleet in March, will come with the new interior, as will 737 Max aircraft slated to start arriving in 2017.

Adding the seats on the carrier's 372 737-700s, which will be done first, will give Southwest the equivalent of 16 “free” aircraft, Jordan said Tuesday at a news conference in a maintenance hangar adjacent to company headquarters. Buying those planes would cost $600 million, he said.

Room for the seats was created by switching to lighter, thinner padding; limiting the range of recline to 2 inches from 3; and replacing seat-back pouches with netting. Pitch, or the distance from the back of a seat to the back of the one behind it, will slip to 32 inches from 33.

“How much legroom you have between you and the seat in front of you did not change,” Jordan said.

Southwest doesn't anticipate any luggage logjams from having more seats without adding overhead bin space because the lack of fees means passengers don't have an incentive to use carry-on bags, Jordan said. It also shouldn't change Southwest's average 30-minute “turn time,” or the length of time its planes spend on the ground between flights.

Work on Southwest's Boeing 737-700s will start in March and be completed by mid-2013, said Brian Hirshman, vice president of technical operations. The carrier then will redo 52 737-700s and 86 Boeing 717s acquired when Southwest bought AirTran Holdings Inc.